


26 Ways to Love

by orphan_account



Category: SHINee
Genre: Multi, but each drabble stands alone, just a bunch of stupidly sappy little drabbles, not a complete fic, that's it i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 03:07:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13561437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: just a series of au, non-au and everything in between drabbles about SHINee





	26 Ways to Love

**Abundant**

This is the fifth delivery man to have turned up within the hour and the PDs and staff have gone from cooing to rolling their eyes. This time it is a bouquet of sunflowers, vibrant and yellow and as big as his face. It joins the other bouquets at the end of the table and for once, this huge and silly gesture of love doesn’t make him cry. The listeners sense his happiness too, because they send messages saying that he must have had a good day and they can tell from his voice that he’s smiling a lot.

 

At the end of the broadcast, the chief PD asks him who sent them. Everyone else pretends to be busy with something, but he can sense that they’re listening in too.

 

“Ah, just my members,” he replies. It’s actually just one member, but they don’t need to know that. “I was complaining the other day that they send flowers to everyone else’s concerts and events, but not to mine, and today’s the anniversary of my solo debut. They must have remembered that.”

 

“Wow, you guys are seriously jjang,” says one other PD. “Your relationship must be very good if they’re sending so many bouquets.”

 

He blushes and nods.

 

Minho is waiting in the car park for him when he staggers out, almost buried under the weight of the many, many flowers he’s been given. “Oh, you didn’t cry,” he says. “I thought you would.”

 

“You fucker, were you trying to make me cry?”

 

Minho laughs. “No, I just wanted to make you smile.”

 

That makes Jonghyun laugh as well. “One would have been enough.”

 

“All of the flowers in the world wouldn’t be enough t-”

 

Minho stops speaking then, blushing furiously; Jonghyun hears the words anyway.

**Ballad**

 

“Woah, this is daebak!”

 

Taemin says that  _all the time_ , but Jonghyun feels his cheeks and ears burn anyway. It is one of his better works, if he can say so himself.

 

“I like this part,” Jinki says, pointing to the last chorus on his sheet. “ _I’m just one of the many people that pass you by, I’m not special to you_. Those two lines capture the meaning of the entire song.”

 

Kibum, who has remained quiet until now, speaks up. Jonghyun half expects something sharp from him – he’s quite used to Kibum’s tendency to hide his affection – but Kibum just says “If you ask me, it’s like Aside. Both songs are about unrequited love. But Aside is neutral and sweet and easy to sing, but this one, this is real and powerful and emotional. Put the two songs together and it’s like putting a Honda next to a Lamborghini.”

 

“It sounds like you’re writing a love song about this love song,” Taemin laughs.

 

“So what are you going to call it?” Minho asks.

 

“Selene 6.23.”

 

“What does it mean?”

 

It’s a question he’s anticipated, but it’s still a question he doesn’t know how to answer. “Well, it’s about the moon, which is far away.”

 

“You feel ignored by the moon?” Kibum’s voice is flat, sarcastic.

 

“It’s not like that… it’s like being ignored by someone whose presence is like the moon. Always there, so beautiful, but never within reach.”

 

“It’s really beautiful, hyung,” Taemin says again, much quieter this time. “Thank you for letting us have it.”

**Community of Common Fate**

“If you could go back in time, would you still debut as SHINee?”

 

What will happen if I say no, Jonghyun wonders. Will the fans take it seriously or will they pass it off as a joke? Will Minho get hurt again? What will happen if I say I just want to sit in a café with a guitar and sing about the little butterfly thoughts that flutter through my mind?

 

Thankfully, Jinki answers first. “If it’s these same members, then yes.”

 

~

 

_Apparently they are to debut together as a band named SHINee, the five of them. He knows Taemin – likes him – well enough. He knows Kibum too; that strange boy, both harsh and vulnerable, rude and kind. Jinki has a lovely voice, but he’s not exactly comfortable onscreen. And Minho, well, that’s a surprise. Everyone’s been expecting Junmyeon to make up the fifth member._

_What is clear, though, is that he’s going to have to carry this group vocally. Jinki can sing, but he’s nowhere near as polished or technically proficient, and the others are just hopeless._

_He just hopes that he doesn’t let them down._

 

~

 

Minho laughs, and Jonghyun falls out of his daydream. He’s sandwiched between Jinki and Minho. Kibum and Taemin are messing around behind the cameras. Eight years have gone by in a blink. Look at how far they’ve come.

 

The interviewer has moved on to a different question. Jonghyun nods and laughs and pretends to be present, but he’s still stuck on her last question. She was wrong to ask whether they would choose SHINee again; the choice was never theirs. Fate brought them together.

**Diphylleia grayi**

_As time passes, the white petals, too, will wilt away_

_With no memory of having been translucent_

As time passes, I will slowly stop thinking about you

And I will forget all the times you made me cry

 

**Explicit**

“Oh, fuck yes.”

 

Taemin’s eyes flick up to him, dark and lustful, but Jonghyun can barely tear his gaze away from the almost obscene stretch of those plump lips around his cock.

 

There’s little need for a guiding hand or words of encouragement when Taemin’s in this sort of mood; when he’s the one to push Jonghyun down on the bed and suck his cock down so fast that he chokes on it.

 

They’re going to get caught. Jonghyun’s mother and sister are just downstairs, the door isn’t locked and manager hyung is on his way over to pick Taemin up. Taemin draws back to catch his breath, and Jonghyun fists a handful of his hair to pull him up for a kiss.

 

“That’s gross,” Taemin says when they break apart. He goes back down immediately, enthusiastically; it doesn’t take very long before Jonghyun feels the rising warmth of his orgasm.

 

“I’m close,” he warns. Taemin slides back, until only the head remains between his fat lips, and uses his hands to stroke Jonghyun to completion. He muffles a groan of satisfaction by biting down on his hand, hard.

Taemin opens his mouth wide, showing him globs of white cum all over his pink tongue, and Jonghyun’s spent erection twitches, threatening to reawaken. He’s tempted to lean down and kiss Taemin, to taste himself, but as if Taemin can read his mind, he swallows and wipes his mouth on the back of his hand.

 

Now that he’s sated, Jonghyun remembers his manners. He gestures at Taemin’s crotch, bulging as much as those tight black jeans will allow, and asks “How do you want me-”

 

“It’s not that I didn’t like the song, or that it wasn’t good,” Taemin says out of the blue. He pulls his blue shirt out of his jeans and lets the fabric cover the evidence of his arousal. “It’s just... I can’t possibly sing it in front of an audience.”

 

“What song?”

 

“Cocktail.”

 

“Oh.” And then Jonghyun understands what brought this on, why Taemin had insisted on following him home from the showcase. “I wasn’t offended or anything, it’s fine. I mean…” He’s at a loss for words. What do you say to someone who’s just told you that your song drives them wild with lust?

 

“How do you manage it?”

 

Jonghyun shrugs. “I don’t know… uh, I guess when you go through the writing process trying to find the right words and struggle with structure of the composition after that, it kind of dilutes the effect.”

 

The doorbell rings distantly; it must be Taemin’s manager.

 

“See you soon,” Taemin says, picking up his stuff and shaking his hair back into place. “And good luck with the promotions.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

Taemin winks at him. “If you win first place, I’ll let you blow me.”

**Five**

The interview is going fine; it’s one of those silly things where they give them a pointy stick and ask them harmless things like ‘which member is most likely to lose his phone’ and they have to pick.

 

So far, the funniest question has been ‘which member is likely to have more than 2 children in the future’ because everyone had picked Taemin, who loudly insisted that he wants to adopt, and no one picked Kibum, who loudly insisted that he wants 5 children.

 

It catches them all off-guard when the interviewer asks ‘which member would you choose to kick out of SHINee if you absolutely had to pick one’.

 

Beside him, Taemin’s face darkens. Jonghyun puts a hand on his knee, both to comfort him and warn him to get his expression back in order. No one has pointed at anyone else yet.

 

“Why would we have to kick someone out? All of the members manage ourselves really well,” Kibum replies; his voice is still light, but Jonghyun can hear the warning in it.

 

The interviewer pushes on anyway. “Well, what if SM made you do it?”

 

This time, Jinki answers. “Lee Soo Man songsaenim wouldn’t do that, he’s the one that put us together! But to answer the question, if one of us had to leave, we all would. SHINee is the five of us, together. If you remove anyone, we won’t be SHINee anymore.”

 

And that’s the truth, isn’t it?

 

But the air has regrettably turned awkward because of their refusal to play this game. Surprisingly, Taemin comes to the rescue. “I’d kick myself out. Then I’d take a long holiday while the hyungs do all the work.”

 

That leads both Kibum and Minho to exclaim “Yah, Lee Taemin” and try to poke their maknae with their sticks, and of course Jonghyun gets caught in the crossfire and poked in the process. Everyone laughs.

 

What a stupid question, honestly.

**Gay**

“They’re talking about Jjong again,” Kibum remarks.

 

Jinki stops scrolling through the news and glances over at Kibum’s phone. It’s some messageboard or another, and to absolutely no one’s surprise, people are speculating about Jonghyun’s sexuality again.

 

“Why now?”

 

“Uh…” Kibum’s eyes flit over the screen “he was talking about Your Name, you know, that Makoto Shinkai movie, and he said if he turned into a girl he’d want to date a man.”

 

It’s not the most incriminating statement. “Give it a couple of days, it’ll die down,” Jinki replies. “Maybe even less, if Taemin’s going out with Jongin again tonight.”

 

“Do you think they’re together?”

 

It seems that Kibum is in a chatty mood today. Jinki puts his phone away and gives his dongsaeng the attention he wants. “He said no.”

 

“And you believe him? Remember when he said he wasn’t dating anyone and then he became all emo when he got dumped?”

 

Jinki shudders. It was a dark time indeed; Taemin would play screamo metal and respond to simple questions like ‘what do you want for dinner’ with ‘what is the point of eating when we are all going to die anyway’.

 

“At least it’s not me this time,” Kibum says with a small smile. Jinki knows that smile. It’s Kibum’s I-did-something-I-shouldn’t-but-didn’t-get-caught smile. It’s a smile that spreads an unexpected warmth through Jinki. Kibum is a dear friend; he deserves to date and have someone call him silly pet names and welcome him home with a kiss. It’s really no one’s business what gender that someone might be.

 

“One day, it won’t matter.”

 

Kibum doesn’t look at him, still preoccupied with whatever is happening on the messageboard, but he says “Thank you.”

**Haggard**

Things have changed somewhat since Kibum stopped living in the dorm. For one, he sees far less of his members than he imagined possible. It feels like they really are just colleagues, since he sees them when they’re practicing or promoting or touring, but otherwise, his days are his own.

 

That difference really sinks in when Kibum turns up at the SM building to practice his upcoming solo with Tiffany only to run into Taemin in the practice room.

 

Taemin greets him brightly. “Ah, Key-hyung! I saw that you booked this room after me, are you going to have a solo stage at the concert? But you’re a bit early, the room is still mine now.”

 

But Kibum cannot find the words to respond. Taemin has lost so much weight that it turns Kibum’s stomach. There are deep dark bags under his eyes. His hair has been bleached and it looks so unhealthy.

 

Who let you become like this, Kibum wonders, remembering the days when he used to wake up at night to cook for Taemin.

 

Knowing how stressed Taemin must be about his debut, Kibum forces his lips into a smile. “I came to get a sneak peek of the most anticipated solo debut of the decade.”

 

Taemin’s smile wavers. “Ah… it’s not that great. The dance is actually quite simple but it’s so taxing to sing and dance non-stop for the entire 4 minutes. It’s AR for this concert, but I can’t even seem to lipsync properly.”

 

“There’s no point worrying too much about these things,” Kibum replies immediately. It’s a meaningless assurance, and a hypocritical one at that; if Kibum were in Taemin’s shoes he’d worry about the same exact same thing. But Kibum is not in Taemin’s shoes, and sometimes it’s more painful to watch someone struggle under the weight of a burden you’d happily place on your shoulders. “The fans will certainly forgive a solo singer for lipsyncing when a whole group with more members than I can count on my fingers do it too.”

 

Taemin doesn’t look satisfied with his explanation at all, but he doesn’t argue.

 

“Come on, let’s go get coffee. I haven’t had my fix yet.”

 

“Eh, don’t you have practice after this?”

 

Kibum lies shamelessly. “Tiffany’s always late.” He throws in a bit of aegyo too, for good measure. “Come on, Taeminnie, I don’t want to go alone like some friend-less loser.” And a bribe too. “Hyung will pay.”

 

It’s a winning trifecta.

 

Soon enough, they’re seated in the café around the corner, sipping on low-fat, sugar-free lattes. Kibum’s ordered a huge cinnamon roll too; he really should be laying off the carbs and sugar, but Taemin ends up eating about two-thirds of it and that was the whole purpose anyway.

 

Taemin leans back with a sigh, fingers curled around his mug; he looks a lot better than he did fifteen minutes ago. “Thanks for the coffee.”

 

Kibum waves it off. “It was purely selfish.”

 

“Jongin’s been feeding me chicken at night,” Taemin says then. “And ice-cream. I’m going to put on so much weight after the comeback is over and I’ll blame you for it too.”

 

Taemin is so much more perceptive than anyone gives him credit for, Kibum thinks then. He knows this, but even he still treats Taemin like a child.

 

“You’re lucky it’s me,” Kibum retorts. “If it were Jonghyun he’d accuse SM of starving you and go on a hunger strike.”

 

Taemin laughs.

 

“Soo Man himself will be waiting outside the practice room every morning and evening to feed you protein shakes. Fans will send so much banana milk to the company that the trainees will drink nothing else for years.” The joke has gone from funny to lame and soon it’ll be a dead horse, but Kibum will keep going as long as Taemin keeps laughing.

 

XXXXX

 

_This is a bit different from my usual stuff in the sense that I always write really angsty shit and honestly, I kill characters far too easily. I just wanted to write something slightly happier._


End file.
